Thailand's BangIFF awards to Iran's ‘No Date, No Signature’

Iranian acclaimed feature ‘No Date, No Signature’ has won an award at the 4th edition of the BangkokThai International Film Festival (BangIFF).

Directed by Vahid Jalilvand, the 104-minute award-winning film received Best Fiction Feature award at the Thai event.

When forensic pathologist Dr. Kaveh Nariman hits a motorbike with his car, he injures the motorcyclist’s 8-year-old son. Although he offers to take the child to a clinic nearby, the father refuses his help and money.

The next morning, in the hospital where he works, Dr. Nariman discovers that the little boy has been brought for an autopsy after a suspicious death.

Another doctor attributes the death to botulism, but Dr. Nariman suspects the accident might be the true — or at least a contributing — cause. The physician faces an ethical decision: Should he reveal his potential culpability?

The New York Times writes: “An absorbing illustration of how minor actions and bad decisions can amplify one another (and have ripple effects of their own), ‘No Date, No Signature’ is a sturdy morality play from the theater-trained Iranian director Vahid Jalilvand.”

‘No Date, No Signature’ was premiered at the 35th Fajr Film Festival and received three Crystal Simorgh awards for best director, best actor in a supporting role and best sound mixer.

The movie has so far taken part at a number of international events, including the 2018 Palm Springs Film Festival in the US, the 37th Istanbul International Film Festival in Turkey, and the 3rd Slemani International Film Festival in Iraqi Kurdistan region.

The flick scooped the Special Jury Award ‘Silver Alexander’, Best Director and Best Actor awards at the Venice Horizons section of the 74th Venice Film Festival in Italy and Audience Choice award at the 18th Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival in Spain.

Set to represent Iran at the Best Foreign Language Film section of the 91st Academy Awards, it also won the FIPRESCI Jury Award at the 58th Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece, as well as the Best Director award at the Andrei Tarkovsky International Film Festival "The Mirror" in Russia.

The best film award at the 2018 Brussels Film Festival in Belgium and five awards, including Best Film for Ali Jalilvand, Best Director for Vahid Jalilvand, Best Screenplay for Ali Zarnegar and Vahid Jalilvand, Best Supporting Actor for Navid Mohammadzadeh, and Best Supporting Actress for Zakieh Behbahani at the 2018 Iran Cinema Celebration are among the latest achievements by ‘No Date, No Signature’.

Jalilvand’s movie produced by his brother Ali, stars Hediyeh Tehrani, Amir Aqaee, Saeed Dakh, Alireza Ostadi and Navid Mohammadzadeh.

The latest edition of the BangIFF was held on October 14-17.

MG/MG